LA KISS Wins Season Opener Against Sharks

ANAHEIM, CA - Nathan Stanley threw five touchdown passes and ran for a sixth score leading the LA KISS to a 64-39 victory over the Jacksonville Sharks on Saturday night at Honda Center in the Arena Football League season openers for both teams.

The KISS led 47-39 entering the fourth quarter, then held Jacksonville scoreless over the final 15 minutes, thanks to recoveries of two kickoffs off the bottom bar of a rebound net, two turnovers and the Sharks turning the ball over on downs.

"This game is about getting sudden change of possessions and the balls off the net were really the turning point in this game," said Omarr Smith, a winner in his first game as the KISS coach. Smith was hired in November to succeed Bob McMillen, who resigned after coaching the KISS to a 7-29 record over its first two seasons.

Smith had spent the past two seasons as assistant head coach of the San Jose SaberCats and was the defensive coordinator for the Arizona Rattlers for three seasons before that.

Punting is prohibited in arena football and rebound nets 30 feet wide and 32 feet high are on the back of each end zone, in an attempt to keep kickoffs and missed field goals in play.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, D.J. Stephens, an alumnus of Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, fielded a kickoff by teammate Andre Heidari off the bottom bar of a rebound net and returned the ball to the Jacksonville 3-yard line.

Rory Nixon ran three yards for his second touchdown of the game on the following play.

Rayshaun Kizer ended the Sharks' next possession by intercepting a pass by Tommy Grady on the KISS 1-yard line.

After scoring touchdowns on each of their first eight possessions, the KISS turned the ball over on downs on their next possession, with Stanley throwing four consecutive incomplete passes.

Grady threw four incomplete passes as Jacksonville turned the ball over on downs on its next possession.

Heidari kicked a 19-yard field goal with one minute, eight seconds to play to give the KISS a 57-39 lead.

Stephens recovered Heidari's ensuing kickoff off the bottom bar of a rebound net in the end zone for a touchdown.

KISS defensive lineman Rodney Fritz recovered a fumble by Sharks fullback Derrick Ross on the KISS 2-yard line with about 20 seconds remaining.

Stanley completed 27 of 36 passes for 283 yards. Grady, the AFL's MVP in 2012, completed 22 of 33 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns and had one pass intercepted.

Ross ran for 1-yard touchdowns in the second and third quarters before a crowd announced at 6,805.

"We took care of the football," Smith said. "We were disciplined, executed at a high level, but we could have been better.

"In the first half, we didn't meet expectations in the secondary with some coverages, we made some adjustment. Offensively, we did enough to win the game, but special teams was a huge component."

The KISS' owners include two members of the rock band KISS, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. KISS played an unplugged and unmasked pregame concert for season ticket holders and performed at halftime Saturday night.

--City News Service, photo courtesy of LA KISS